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I used to work for a company who wanted to win a good business award. To support their bid they produced a mission statement that set out how they treated their customers. Me and my fellow work colleagues laughed at this, because what they said in their mission statement was completely at odds with how they actually delivered customer service. People were held in phone queues for up to an hour then often connected to badly training support staff who were not very good at dealing with client's issues.

When it came to dealing with their own staff, the company also failed. Low staff moral meant that staff stayed on average only four months resulting in huge recruitment and training costs. Not surprisingly the company went out of business because it failed to make a profit.

I am not against mission statements, just the lack of implementing the policies set out in the mission statements.

When it comes to your life, do you have a mission statement? Perhaps, mission statement is the wrong way of putting it. Do you have a vision for your life? If so, are living your vision, or is it just something that you vaguely aspire to?

What is a life vision? Simply put, it is a statement of your highest aspirations, your core beliefs. A vision defines who you are at a fundamental level.

You can divide your life into several areas: health, family, significant other, finance, leisure, spirtual. Depending on your circumstances there may be more. Do you have a vision for each of these areas?

For example your health vision could be to be fit, healthy and a good weight. It could also include aspects of your mental health suc as being happy and satisfied with your life. You could be more ambitious and have a vision to be fit enough to run marathons regularly.

For your family, your vision could be to create the right work/life balance, so that enough of your time is spent earning money to look after your family, and enough time is dedicated to spending quality time with them.

It helps to write down your vision in some detail. You could also select a picture that represents the vision. For example, a family vision could be represented by a picture of you and your family having a good time together; or a financial vision could be represented by a large family house in a beautiful location that you aspire to. These images can either be ones you have taken yourself, or stock images copied from the internet.

Thinking about, then writing down your visions, is the easy bit, just like the company I mentioned found no problem in setting out their mission statement. The real issue is how you live up to that vision, how your life is in alignment with your vision. If you have a vision about your family then work late at the office every night, are you really living up to your vision? If you want to be fit and healthy yet drink beer and eat pizzas regularly, are you true to your vision?

One you have a vision for each area of your life and then begin to live according to that vision, the next thing that you need to do is set goals. Goals make a vision easier to realize. If we take the health vision as an example, then a goal to lose 6 lbs in a month is a great motivation towards achieving your vision of good health. A family goal could be to allocate at least 4 hours each weekend to spend in family activities.

Take time out each week to review your visions and goals. Consider if your daily actions are in accordance with your visions or goals, or taking you away from them. Is there anything extra this week that you can do to make your goals become more achievable? The review process is very important. It is so easy to get caught up in the hectic activities of daily life. You can easily forget your goals, especially when faced with demands from your friends or family who, though they care for you, do not always have your best interests at heart as they offer you an extra piece of chocolate cake, or want you to go to the game Saturday when you had promised to take the kids bowling.

Your visions must be practical and realizable. One of the trickiest vision areas is the spiritual area. It is so easy to say that your vision is to be like Jesus or Buddha, or that you want to reach enlightenment in six months. If Jesus or Buddha represent the highest that a man can be, then you can probably not be like them. Stick to what is possible for you. Aspre to be a better person, be more loving, giving empathetic and so on. Desire to become a healthy person, but not to win the heavyweight championship of the world unless you are a heavy weight, super fit and a highly skilled boxer.

Having visions then setting goals to help make your visions come true is the key to a happy and successful life.

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Stephen Williamson owns an independant software company LifeField Software. He is also the developer of Life Manager Pro, organiser software based on the Getting Things Done method of productivity.More infomration at:www.lifemanagerpro.com